Even hardcore fans of the Allman Brothers may not be aware of the lengths to which Duane Allman went to get his “cleaned-up Clapton” guitar tone–especially in the age of analog signal processing and vacuum tubes.  Thankfully, Gibson spills some of Duane Allman’s secrets in their latest Tone Quest article.

The ingredients in Allman’s tone recipe included a ‘59 Les Paul at the beginning of his career, but Duane quickly evolved into a virtual guitar grease monkey:

Of course, there are fine points. For example, Duane’s and Dickey’s Marshall cabinets were modified. They were half-open-backed and, instead of the 25-watt Celestion “greenback” speakers that gave Clapton his distinctive Cream-era howl, boasted JBL-D120s for a cleaner sound. Duane also used circular picking to soften his attack and increase his speed.

Then there’s Duane’s beautiful slide technique. He most often played in standard tuning, which begs a more melodic approach. And his choice of a coricidin bottle – too short to cover all six strings at a time – precluded Elmore James–style full chords, so Duane favored triads. He also muted the strings with his middle finger behind the slide, which he wore on his fourth digit, to remove any unwanted or random harmonics.

And speaking of Elmore, when Duane did play in open tuning he typically opted for E (E-B-E-G#-B-E), also James’ open tuning of choice, yielding masterpieces like “Statesboro Blues” and “One Way Out.”

If you’re on a budget, it’s very tempting to select a microphone that can also be used for live performance, since good mics are expensive and a lot of us with home studios also spend time playing out.  I can’t tell you how many basement recordings I’ve made with my live performance mics, nor how frustrating it is to fight with the flat-sounding a muddy sounding vocal takes that these mics produce in the home studio.

In my case, I’m talking about the Shure Beta 57.  While this mic is an improvement over the SMC stage mic I used to employ for recording vocals, it’s a far cry from the studio-grade large-diaphragm mics I should be using to record the human voice.  But where to start?  Home recording enthusiasts like us don’t want to drop a grand every time we add a mic to the mix.

Shure’s KSM27 (pictured) is a reasonably safe bet at around $300 on the street. Though it’s on the smaller end, this mic provides the large-diaphragm bigness you might be looking for, and it can be used in drum applications too–as an overhead mic.  If you need to record a choir or group of singers, the KSM27 is an excellent value. Here are a few on eBay.

We’ll cover more studio-specific vocal mics in the coming weeks.  In the meantime, happy recording.

Prior to going to a Mac-based recording setup a few years ago, the StudioRoll gang was definitely a Windows shop, with our multi-tracker of choice being the excellent shareware product N-Track studio. Of course, the software isn’t free, but why should it be?  It’s more capable than many commercial packages for Windows.  In fact, for straight-up live instrument recording, I’d put it up against GarageBand!

Anyway, the almost multi-track software for windows has gone gold at 6.0.3, and if you love VUmeters and VST Plugin effects–this is the package for you.  It’s really tough beat $64…

If you’re too busy recording to spend some leisure time playing Wii Sports Golf, then perhaps the recent innovation Electronic Musician delved into might be right up your alley.  The Wii remote, of course, offers motion controls that are definitely considered unconventional in the music industry. But, as EM discovered, the results can be astounding. Check it out.  Of course, if making real music is too much work for you, grab a copy of Nintendo’s Wii Music, and you’ll have oodles of fun directing a virtual orchestra.

Practice amps certainly don’t get any smaller than the TU-88 tuner/monitor Boss just introduced. Aside from slick looks and a tiny form factor, the TU-88 offers some handy features:

• Three tuning modes (Chromatic, Guitar, Bass), Flat Tuning function and ACCU-PITCH verification with an audible beep
• Built-in headphone amp lets you tune, jam and play your effects with headphones or direct recording
• Built-in metronome with selectable rhythmic patterns and volume control
• MIX IN allows jamming with an external music-playback device (iPod, etc.)

Don’t tell the students at Britain’s Trinity College of Music that you can’t jam with each other over a network.  They’ve tried it–with excellent results.  Of course, they’re only using it to perform with musicians also at the college, so there’s not a major problem with lag. Check it out.  It will be really cool when people can jam across the Internet, but for now, DSL just ain’t fast enough for a real-time jam.

MOTU's Digital Performer Keyboard for Mac

If you spend a lot of time in the studio with MOTU’s digital performer application, then you’re no-doubt aware of the inordinate number of keyboard shortcuts the apps uses.  Keeping track of them takes a nerdlike prowess only a few possess. Thankfully, MOTU has just introduced a new USB keyboard for the Mac that solves the problem: a color-coded monster that has just about every shortcut printed on the relevant keys.  It will set you back US $169. Of course, if you don’t want to ante up for the keyboard, MOTU also makes a silicone skin that does the same thing to your current Mac keyboard.

These only work with the latest aluminum “flatty” Apple keyboards, so older Macs need not apply.

Not sure if Electronic Musician’s web server is goofed up, or their RSS feeds are as excited about the new synth from Kurzweil as the author seems to be:

I cannot think of a more thorough and better-implemented performance keyboard than the PC3x. The sounds are rich, expressive, and natural. Learning to become an expert V.A.S.T. programmer is difficult, but maneuvering around the instrument for typical live tasks couldn’t be simpler.

I’ve long held that everybody should make music, if possible. It’s an outlet.  Problem is, music is more than an art; it’s also a craft. So expression isn’t easy for everybody. You may be very musical inside but butterfingers when it comes to playing an instrument or lacking the pitch control or lungs to be a quality singer.  That’s OK.

Steinberg offers what I would call the modern equivalent of Instant Music (EA’s zero-talent Amiga music creation software from the eighties), a program called Sequel.  It’s basically a sequencing program with the novice in mind, or perhaps even the non-musician in mind.

It’s visually very appealing, borrowing a lot of UI ideas from Apple’s GarageBand–but minus the studio look and feel.   Sequel also gives you a few things that GarageBand doesn’t: like tap-tempo and Windows compatibility.  Check it out.

I am really digging on FretPet.  This snappy little program for OS X allows you to sequence notes using a guitar interface, which is a unique find, since so many composition tools are geared around a piano interface.  Perhaps even more useful is FretPet’s inclusion of really useful guitar reference tool like its “Guitar Expert”–this lets you cross-reference all possible chords. So if you’ve got a chord and don’t know what it’s called, FretPet will tell you.  It will also show you all possible fingerings for the chord–and let you listen to each.  Awesome–now go download it.